Home of the Great William Shakespeare!

Ah, wish I could be British. Don't get me wrong, love my country--just don't like it very well, of late. Folks here are getting more and more regressive and mentally lazy with every passing year. Basic manners have become passe.

You know, most Americans, don't even know how to properly answer a telephone anymore? It's true! Many--including children--answer, "Who is this?" or, when you ask for a specific person, say, "This is." This is what? That's just stupid..and lazy. (In case you don't know, the CORRECT--and polite--response is, "This is (she/he/name) speaking." Or, to shorten it, "This is she/he speaking." THAT is how one is SUPPOSED to answer a telephone! Is that so difficult? No.

Sadly, for many Americans, it's easer to do nothing--or the wrong thing--or rather, not to bother to learn to do things the right way, I should say, then to make that extra effort to have a little respect for yourself and others.

Then again, most Americans have gotten so lazy, as to not eve bother to look when they cross a parking lot (car park). Just sit in a grocery store or department store lot, some Saturday, and see for yourself---scary! These people walk around lots and inside the store like blinking automatons--don't look right, don't look left--just stare off into space like there's no life inside them.

We are an impatient lot, we are. Dont' even like to do a simple thing like wait our turn in the grocery check out or the bank line. We are a simple race, that likes things kept simple--thinking is discouraged, from the politicians in Washington D.C., down to small town elementary schools.

Abstract thinking is almost unheard of in the American educational system--and when I was growing up, in high school (9th grade), my only introduction to Shakespeare--was a class trip to a local movie theater, to see "Romeo and Juliet--who's opening scenes showed close ups of the male actor's cod-pieces (crotches). Oh, that was subtle. The kids all snickered. Good way to introduce Shakespere to a bunch of 15 year olds, ey?

I did not study Shakespeare, formally, until I was in my early 40's, in college.

I love the UK---their love of words, of thinking, the sense of humor. Americans have lost their true sense of humor---the days of Abbot and Costello's "Who's on First" routine, would be lost on many, now. Now, if it isn't crude or insulting, many Americans don't get it. Sad.

Shakespere came from Britain, bless him. They love the theater in Britian...here...eh. Theater is mostly only for the wealthy.

And, people here, they freak out over every little thing. My friends in the UK--really, some of the most relaxed people I've ever met--well, them and the Dutch. But the Dutch have their "coffee houses," ey?

During the buildup to the Iraq war, I asked a fellow adult college student, if it upset her that American planes illgeally dropped cluster bombs in the city of Bagdad--where little children were picking up the 3 inch unexploded bomblets--thinking we'd dropped toys---and losing limbs for their trouble. I had to go to the ladies to be sick--no joke--my so-called "patriotic" American friend (she was wearing three American flag pins and a "support the troops badge) said, "Who cares about that? Anything it takes, as long as we get Saddam."

That's why I don't like my country, anymore. No one thinks, no one cares, no one feels, anymore. It's literally become a case of "I've got mine, to hell with the rest of the world--incluiding my neighoburs, grannies, children and fluffy animals."

My Uk friends aren't like that, they are good decent folks, each and every one, --not that they don't cuss or get cross or even have their predjudices or bad moments,--but unlike so many Americans, they CARE. They THINK. I like that.

aww... Are things really so bad over there? Hmm... if I think well, indeed, most Americans I met, usually said after 'hello': "Let me tell you something". I always thought, that's the American way to start a conversation. I like some American things, though. Swing-music, Coca Cola, Wrigley's chewing gum and J.D.Salinger's stories (also Carson McCullers is one of my favourites). Every country and nation has it's own ways.

I think you are hanging out with the wrong Americans. I agree that there is a sense of cultural and moral decline overall in the US, but there are small pockets of resistance. For instance, I live in Charlottesville, Va, which realy is a an American cultural mecca. Theater, music, art galleries-- all of these are the norm, the socailly accepted things. I am going to see John Cohen speak tonight. Kurt Vonnegut was here. David Seadris will be here.<br /><br />Its not that bad everywhere. Try to find soe more like you, I guarantee they exist!!!

My love of Britain has come along gradually. I just think it's such an amazing country with such amazing people. I hadn't been there until last summer, when I visited London for 5 days. It was everything I had ever dreamt of. I wouldn't have believed that you could walk around...